Radio - Me and K'Naan

#311 - This wasn't scary at all, and I felt more than capable. (This photo was taken in an empty studio beforehand.)

#312 - Hearing two teenage boys argue about whose juice drink was healthier (while reading the ingredients) in the co-op parking lot

#313 - My Friend Enjoying A New Non-Motorized Lawn Mower


#314 - These Books


#315 - "...But lesser known is the nature of art in this country. Somalia is known as the nation of poets...Almost every household in the country produces some kind of poet. So its an entire country made up of critics of poetry and producers of poetry. We grew up in this kind of like eloquent world, very different from the Mogadishu today." K'Naan

As I was driving home this evening I listened to Sound Opinions on NPR. They talk about music and the music industry. Recently I've found it fascinating. Today they were interviewing K'naan. I'm familiar with him because he opened for Jason Mraz last summer. I was instantly impressed at the concert because his music was the opposite of superficial. He left Somalia when he was 13 around the time the Civil War began and...I don't know enough to tell his story, but his music is full of truth we don't often hear. Then in this interview, he starts talking about poetry and obviously I'm loving him even more and then...I pulled my car over and tried to write what he said

K'naan got a lot of interest and quick success when he performed at a UN gathering in 2001, but he didn't make an album until 2005. He said during that gap he was deciding if,

"I had a relevant position in music, if what I was doing was missing." He was looking for, "My own internal justification for producing sound into the world. I think it is very selfish for people who just make things, that are unnecessary to be made. I think it takes up space. And I don't want to ever take up space. I just thought, 'Why am I here? Like what is the point of me creating something, and is it necessary? Is it absolutely necessary?' And at some point the answer was for me personally it was, because I actually was surviving my own memories and past through the melodies and songs I was making. So if it was necessary for me it might be necessary for someone else." K'Naan

Amen.